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Saturday, September 28, 2013

Muslim Persecution of Christians: July, 2013

On July 4th, the day after the Egyptian military liberated
the nation of Muslim Brotherhood rule, Christian Copts were immediately
scapegoated and targeted. All Islamist leaders—from Brotherhood supreme
leader Muhammad Badi, to Egyptian-born al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri,
to top Sunni cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi—made it a point to single
out Egypt's Copts as being especially instrumental in the ousting of
former Islamist president Morsi, ushering in a month of pogroms against
the nation's Christian minority.

Among other things in July, unprecedented numbers of Christian
churches were attacked, plundered, desecrated, and torched. According to
one Egyptian human rights lawyer, "82 churches, many of which were from the 5th century, were attacked by pro-Morsi supporters in just two days." Al-Qaeda's flag was raised above some churches; anti-Christiangraffiti littered
the sides of other churches and Coptic homes. Due to extreme
anti-Christian sentiment, many churches ceased holding worship services
until recently. Dozens of Coptic homes and businesses were also
attacked, looted, and torched.

In the Sinai, a young Coptic priest was shot dead
in front of his church, while the body of Magdy Lam'i Habib, a Copt,
was found mutilated and beheaded. Four other Christians were slaughtered
by Muslims in Luxor province. Whole towns and villages have been
emptied of Copts, including more than 100 Christian families from El
Arish in the terror-infested Sinai.
Due to the many death threats to Coptic Pope Tawadros II, for a time
he left the papal residence at St. Mark Cathedral—which was earlier savagely attacked, when Morsi was still president—and temporarily ceased holding services.
The rest of July's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around
the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts,
listed by theme and country in alphabetical order, not according to
severity:

Attacks on Christian Worship: Churches and Monasteries

Guinea: During a mob-led frenzy, Christians and their churches were savagely attacked
in the Muslim-majority nation, with some 95 Christians slain and 130
wounded. In Nzérékoré, five churches as well as the homes of pastors
were attacked by Muslim mobs. One priest recounted the violence: "The
two Catholic and Protestant churches have all been ransacked and burned…
Almost all the houses and shops belonging to Christians or people
affiliated with Christians, have not escaped the fury of the attackers."
Similarly, the Catholic area, including the quarters of the nuns, was
looted before being torched. In Moribadou, the violence lasted three
days and saw some 10 churches destroyed.Indonesia: According to the Annual Report published by
IndonesianChristian.org, a Protestant organization monitoring the
nation's Christian community, the pressures against Christian
communities in Aceh "have become intolerable. Within a year, with
non-existent legal pretexts, 17 house churches have been closed:
these also include Catholic chapels. The Islamization of the province
continues, just as promised by the governor Abdullah." The forced
closure of places of worship and threats against Protestant
congregations, says the text, "increase unabated… The behavior of local
authorities is a potential threat to the tolerant atmosphere we see
deteriorating over time." Behind this upsurge is the aforementioned
current governor of Aceh, Zaini Abdullah, who earlier spent years in
exile in Sweden for his Islamist and separatist activities. During his
election campaign, the Islamic politician frequently said that "he would
not hesitate to apply the Koranic laws in the province." Months after
his victory and his words have become reality.Nigeria: Members or supporters of the Islamic organization Boko Haram set off four bombs planted near three Protestant churches
in Kano city, killing at least 45 people. Local Christians were meeting
for Bible study at Christ Salvation Pentecostal Church when one
explosion hit, and 39 bodies were recovered in the area; Christians were
also meeting at St. Stephen's Anglican Church when another bomb went
off; and an explosion apparently targeting Peniel Baptist Church failed
to affect the building.PA Territories: Nuns of the Greek-Orthodox monastery in
Bethany sent a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urging him
and other PA leaders to respond to the escalation of attacks on the
Christian house, including the throwing of stones, broken glass, theft
and looting of the monastery property. "Someone wants to send us away,"
wrote Sister Ibraxia to Abbas, "but we will not flee." Added to
complications, and as increasingly happens to other monasteries—such as a
5th century monastery in Turkey—a local Muslim family has, according to local Christians, "arbitrarily" claimed the monastery's land.

Attacks on Christian Freedom: Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism

Pakistan: Asia Bibi, a Christian mother languishing on death
row since June 2009 for allegedly blaspheming Islam's prophet Muhammad,
may have to wait another two more years before the appeal against her
blasphemy conviction is heard. In November 2010 she was sentenced to death.
The chairman of the Human Liberation Commission in Pakistan has been
lobbying the country's chief justice for Asia's appeal to be heard as
soon as possible but has received no response. Also, a Christian couple
was arrested for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages
to a Muslim cleric in Gojra, where a week before a young Christian man
was sentenced to life in prison on the same charge. Shafqat Masih, 43,
and his wife Shagufta, 40, who have four children between the ages of 5
and 11, were taken into custody on a complaint by Muslim cleric Rana
Muhammad Ejaz, who alleged that he had received blasphemous text
messages from Masih. Gojra City police registered a case under Section
295-C of Pakistan's widely condemned blasphemy laws for allegedly
defaming Islam's prophet, Muhammad. Conviction is punishable by death or
life in prison, which is 25 years in Pakistan.Iran: Mostafa Bordbar, a Muslim convert to Christianity who,
along with several other Christians, was arrested in December 2012 while
celebrating Christmas, was tried in Tehran's Revolutionary Court. He is
one of several Christian prisoners currently being held in ward 350 of
Evin prison for their faith. According to Mohabat News, the court
registered the charges against him as "illegal gathering and
participating in a house church." If found guilty, he can be sentenced
to anywhere from two to 10 years in prison. Five years earlier, he was
arrested for converting to Christianity and participating in a house
church. His interrogator at the time charged him with "apostasy," a charge which still remains on his record.Sudan: Apparently responding to the vitality of the Christian
church, Ammar Saleh, the head of the Islamic Centre for Preaching and
Comparative Studies, chastised the government for not taking decisive
action against Christians operating "boldly" and thus leading to the
apostasy of many Muslim converts to Christianity. According to
International Christian Concern (ICC), Saleh "argued that anyone who
believes there's growth in Sudan's Islamic faithful is 'living on Mars,'
drawing attention to increasing proselytization and an exodus of Muslims to Christianity…
He also stated that the government's efforts to curb the rise of
Christianity were timid as compared to efforts of missionaries to lead
people to Christ." Meanwhile, according to ICC "Churches are being
forced to close down, foreign workers are being kicked out of the
country and Christians are constantly pressurized by the government and
society in all kinds of ways, so much so that the recent increase in
Christian persecution in Sudan moved the country from being ranked 16th on the 2012 Open Doors World watch List to 12th in 2013."

Dhimmitude: A Climate of Hate and Contempt

Iraq: Kidnapped on May 27, the body of Salem Dawood Coca, a
Christian, was found inside the truck he was driving when abducted.
According to AINA News, "The truck was booby trapped with explosives,
and it is believed that he was forced to carry out a suicide bombing,
but refused to do so. The kidnappers had contacted Mr. Coca's family but
had not demanded a ransom and described him as a 'Christian infidel.'" Mr. Coca leaves behind a wife and several children.Kurdistan: A Muslim ambulance driver refused to transport the deceased body of a Christian woman
from the hospital to the church, citing that it was forbidden in Islam.
According to Asia News, "The body of the Assyrian woman, who died last
Sunday at Zarkari hospital in Erbil, had to be brought to the town of
Ankawa, but the Muslim ambulance driver refused to drive to the church
because it is "haram" (forbidden) in Islam." In traditional Muslim
theology, being near the deceased body of an infidel is dangerous, as
the torture reserved for them could spread.Nigeria: Growing numbers of Christian girls in Muslim-majority
areas, where the Islamic group, Boko Haram holds sway, are being
abducted, kept in the homes of Muslim leaders and forced to renounce
their faith. According to Professor Daniel Babayi, secretary of the
Northern Christian Association of Nigeria, the issue is getting worse: "Christian girls below the age of 18 are forcefully abducted and made to denounce their faith…
They have been kept in the houses of emirs or imams. When we report to
the police, they tell you there is nothing they can do. The police have
become very helpless. In some instances, they are part of the
conspiracy." Last year, Boko Haram had declared that it would begin
doing precisely this—kidnap Christian women—as a way "to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam."Pakistan: Farhad Masih, a 16-year-old Christian boy, was
arrested and beaten on the accusation that he was involved with a Muslim
girl (which is forbidden in Islam). A Muslim mob also tried to burn and
loot his family's house. Local Muslim leaders have made several
draconian stipulations, including that the boy must either convert to Islam or die.
The same thing happened earlier in April 2013, when three Christian
youth were arrested, tortured, and killed by Pakistani police for
allegedly having "love affairs" with Muslim girls.Syria: According to the Assyrian International News Agency,
the "Assyrian village of Tel Hormizd was attacked on Saturday, July 27
at about midnight. Fifty Arab Muslims on motorcycles entered the village
and began a shooting rampage. According to residents, the Muslims fired indiscriminately, wounding two Assyrians,
one of whom is still in hospital." Also, al-Qaeda linked rebel fighters
abducted Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio, a prominent Italian Jesuit priest, most
likely for ransom or beheading. Ironically, Fr. Paolo had reportedly championed the uprising against Bashar al-Assad.

Nigerian Slaughter

July saw several atrocities during the jihad on Nigeria's Christians, including:

At least 30 Christian men, women and children were slain in three
villages in southern Plateau state on June 27 by Islamic extremists
suspected to be from outside of Nigeria who raided the villages
massacring all in sight. Initially a Muslim spokesman for the military's
Special Task Force said the Christian residents of Magama, Bolgong and
Karkashi were attacked by Fulani herdsmen "in apparent retaliation for
cattle theft." Later, however, the military said that many of the
culprits were not even Nigerian. "The number of Christians killed may be as high as 70,
as corpses of Christians killed while fleeing these attacked villages
still litter the bushes," said a witness. "The Muslim attackers chased
their Christian victims on motorcycles and were killing them as they
tried to escape. So many dead bodies have been recovered from the bush,
and we believe that more may still be found…. So far, we have recorded
over 100 houses that have been burnt down by the rampaging Muslim Fulani
attackers in these villages."

According to Christian Today,
Boko Haram "has repeatedly attacked Christian communities and churches,
most recently killing 40 at a boarding school in Yobe state on 6 July. A
dormitory was set alight in the attack and those fleeing gunned down. A
dormitory was set aflame while the children were sleeping; those trying
to escape were gunned down. A month earlier, 16 other students were
shot dead in attacks on a secondary school in Yobe and another school in
Borno. True to its name, "Boko Haram," or "Western Education is a Sin,"
the group recently asserted, "Teachers who teach western education?We will kill them! We will kill them in front of their students, and tell the students to henceforth study the Quran."

Islamic gunmen raided Dinu village in southern plateau state, a
Christian village, on an early Sunday morning, before church services, as increasingly happens, and slaughtered six Christians,
a month after Muslim Fulani herdsmen shot another Christian to death in
a nearby village and destroyed the churches of four villages.

About this Series

Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its
way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians"
was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of
persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and
interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits
under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other
Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions
to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws that criminalize and punish with
death those who "offend" Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like dhimmis, or second-class, "tolerated" citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities,
languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to India in the East,
and throughout the West wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear
that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of
Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Caroline Glick & Mark Levin: The Israeli Solution -- A One-State Pla

Why Israel Opposes International Forces in the Jordan Valley

U.S. scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel

Yet another indication of the absolute corruption of American academia today. "US scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel," from the Jerusalem Post, December 16: NEW YORK – The 5,000-member American Studies Association (ASA), which describes itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to...http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/us-scholars-group-votes-in-favor-of-academic-boycott-of-israel.html

Israel Living Prophecy

A senior New Israel Fund officer told a U.S. official in 2010 that the disappearance of the Jewish state would not be a tragedy, according to a document that was leaked by Wikileaks...She commented that she believed that in 100 years Israel would be majority Arab and that the disappearance of a Jewish state would not be the tragedy that Israelis fear since it would become more democratic.

Mideast expert Michael Widlanski: Fatah is a joke

US-Israeli talks focus on Ahmadinejad's possible ouster

How to exploit the deep cracks forming in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration for removing the Iranian president was a top item on the agenda of the high-level talks between Barack Obama's advisers and Israeli officials at Mossad headquarters in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Wednesday, July 29.

DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that Ahmadinejad's cabinet is falling apart; of his original lineup of 21 ministers, only nine remain at their posts.

The Identity Of The Land

Why the Palestinians need to recognize the Jewish State

We do NOT support a 2-state solution

A January 2009 poll found that Americans oppose creating a Palestinian state by 45-31 percent. A February 2009 Maagar Mohot Survey Institute poll has also shown that Israelis oppose creating a Palestinian state by 51-32 percent.

Many other polls tell a similar story.

These figures suggest that Americans and Israelis have understood that creating a Palestinian state under current conditions will not bring peace but merely another terror state.

Netanya,Israel

Jerusalem At Night

Why reconstruct Gaza without making demands

- that Shalit be release without convicted terrorists being released by Israel in exchange,

- that the US be put in charge of the southern border to ensure that Hamas isn’t rearmed?

- that their three preconditions be accepted by Hamas, i.e. agree to all former agreements,recognize Israel and renounce terror

- that Hamas amend their Charter

- That Hamas disconnect from Iran

The answer is that they don’t want to.

Children of Hamas

Picture of Hamas children the media does not show you

IDF: Civilian Deaths in Gaza Less than 25% of Total

A maximum of 25% of the Palestinians killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli operation are innocent civilians, the head of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), Col. Moshe Levi, said Wednesday. According to Palestinian medical officials, Israel has killed some 1,000 Palestinians and more than half of them are civilians. Levi said the CLA had compiled a list with the names of 900 Palestinians killed during the fighting. He said that 150 names were of women, children and elderly, and that the maximum number of civilians killed so far was 250. Levi also dismissed claims that 43 Palestinians were killed in an IDF attack on a Hamas terror cell that was firing mortars at Israeli forces from within an UNRWA school in Jabalya. Levi said 21 Palestinians were killed in the attack, including a number of Hamas operatives. (Jerusalem Post)

Hamas teaching the children of Gaza

An Iranian reformist daily newspaper has criticized Hamas "for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals." This is reported in today's Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam. The Palestinian daily adds that in response the Iranian government has closed the newspaper.

"The Iranian news agency "Irna" reported yesterday, that the Iranian Culture Ministry has closed the reformist daily newspaper "Karjo Zaran", because it published a report that included criticism of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). On December 30 the paper published a statement of a reformist student organization, that has criticized Hamas for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals. The statement was published whilst the Iranian government expresses a unified stands against Israel, and Tehran is overwhelmed by demonstrations against Israel."

[Al-Ayyam, Jan. 1, 2009] Thanks PMW

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Iran-backed Hamas Rocket, Mortar Attacks and Nuclear Developments

9,400+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2003. [1]3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone. [2]6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. [3]543+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli territory during the ceasefire from June 19 to Dec. 19, 2008. [4]28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire ended, Iran-backed Palestinian groups in Gaza fired rockets and mortars that killed an Israeli-Arab construction worker and a mother of four who was seeking shelter in a bus station as a rocket warning siren sounded. [5]1,000+ people in Israel injured from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001, including Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire, 44 Israelis have been injured and 200 have been treated for shock. [6]Thanks Israel Project

It began with this...

The British Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917Dear Lord Rothschild,I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate theachievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities inPalestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.2

Signed,Arthur James Balfour[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]

Favorite Books

While Europe Slept

About Me

Semi-retired Professor, now also permanent resident of Israel;divides time between both countries-serves on several Boards of Directors for Israel advocacy groups;Chana, resident of Jerusalem, JCPA member

Syria is an Occupier-Are You Listening World?

As of this minute, Syria occupies at least 177 square miles of Lebanese soil. That you are now reading about it for the first time is as much a scandal as the occupation itself.

The news comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border just produced by the International Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the UN. In meticulous detail - supplemented by photographs and satellite images - the authors describe precisely where and how Lebanon has been infiltrated.

Though the land grabs are small affairs individually, they collectively add up to an area amounting to about 4% of Lebanese soil - in U.S. terms, the proportional equivalent of Arizona. Of particular note is that the area of Syrian conquest dwarves that of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms which amount to an area of about 12 square miles.

It would be nice to see the Arab world protest this case of illegal occupation, given its passions about the subject.

Information worth Possessing

"Israel gave the Palestinians an autonomy in 42% of the West Bank and Gaza after the Oslo accords in the early 90's. Over 92% of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza were then under the administration of the Palestinian Authority and its Chairman Yasser Arafat.

"Israel is surrounded by 10 hostile Arab countries who do not even recognize its right to exist ( Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Lybia, Morocco, Tunisia, Aden) and Iran"